Equity, the face saver for India from Doha climate talks
India got some face saver as complex UN climate talks at Doha moved into its final phase with civil society crying hoarse over the Friday’s draft final outcome terming it a perfect recipe for “global genocide”, reports Chetan Chauhan.
India got some face saver as complex UN climate talks at Doha moved into its final phase with civil society crying hoarse over the Friday’s draft final outcome terming it a perfect recipe for “global genocide”.
The proposed text for vetting by around 200 participating countries later tonight provided home to many outstanding issues such as transparency regime for mitigation actions, new market mechanisms and transfer of clean technologies under different UN climate bodies but failed to reach consensus of funding to poor nations. It mooted another year to reach agreement on this.
For India, equity saw a comeback after two years and the rich countries agreed to discuss unilateral carbon tax on aviation and maritime in the course of next year.
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But, bringing emissions from these sectors under UN climate convention witnessed a strong protest from India.
The conference also decided to put clean technology transfer on fast track but did not agree with India’s demand that they should be free of copyright. Instead, it promised to discuss expanding clean “technologies in the public domain”, which evoked protest from India.
There was almost an agreement on extending green-house gases reducing Kyoto Protocol for another eight years with some differences on levels of reduction for rich nations and carrying over of carbon credits bought between 2008 and 2012, first phase of the protocol.
But, this could be a bargaining chip if the rich nations agree to provide an amount equivalent to existing financial commitment of US $ 10 billion a year.
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“It would a sobering offer,” said David C Kaluba of Gambia on behalf of the least developed nations, which want a minimum of US $ 60 billion by 2015.
Rich nations have not offered anything so far but are expected to open their cards as talks extend ahead of official hours on Friday with talks of it getting stretched up-to wee hours of Sunday morning.
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“It would a sobering offer,” said David C Kaluba of Gambia on behalf of the least developed nations, which want a minimum of US $ 60 billion by 2015.
Rich nations have not offered anything so far but are expected to open their cards as talks extend ahead of official hours on Friday with talks of it getting stretched up-to wee hours of Sunday morning.
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NGOs and delegates expressed frustration at the pace of negotiations that started on November 26 and failed renewed scientific warning because of devastating cyclone in Philippines. “An empty shell is being offered, people should protest,” said Harjeet Singh of Action-aid India.
What the decisions could mean
2nd Kyoto Protocol period: India would continue to get money for clean technologies
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Equity without historical responsibility: Could restrict India’s argument to let its emissions grow because of pollution burden of the rich nations.
Finance: May not get any money in next two years except for running office of Green Climate Fund.
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.
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